The Old Homestead
Frances Flora Bond Palmer American, born England
Lithographed and published by Nathaniel Currier American
Not on view
In this farmyard scene, cows, sheep, horses, a goat, and chickens gather in front of a barn, where a man with a pitchfork is visible at the barn's open doorway. A large tree anchors the center of the image; to the right of the tree is an open structure sheltering a cart. A house is depicted in the right background. More cows graze beneath trees at the right.
When Frances "Fanny" Flora Bond Palmer moved to New York from England in 1844 she was thirty-two and an accomplished artist and printmaker. Initially, Fanny and her husband Seymour operated a small print-shop in lower Manhattan, similar to one they had run in Leicester (United Kingdom). In 1849, the couple moved to Brooklyn after the business closed. Nathaniel Currier recognized Palmer’s talent and began to buy her drawings to use as print designs. She would later work as a staff artist for Currier & Ives and is considered one of the leading women lithographers of the period.
